WAKE-UP CALL IN TRICHY

One afternoon while covering the floods in Trichy I found myself wading through knee-deep water in the interiors of a residential colony. It was lunch-time but I figured if I tried to get out it will take me half an hour. 45 minutes for lunch (I eat slowly) and then another 30 to get back in. Not worth it. Skip lunch and continue wading.

By the time I got back to my hotel room at 10 pm, I was ragingly ravenous. I decided dinner had to be elaborate and stylish. I opened the menu and went straight for the white meat. I wanted soft, tender chicken, preferably marinated, drenched in a sweet-and-sour sauce with a generous dollop of mashed potatoes.

With such longing in my heart, I searched for the chicken dishes. I found the page but it was titled, (brace yourself) ‘Cock-a-doodle-do’.

All plans of an elaborate dinner were hastily abandoned. I settled for rice.

ANGREJI - ALL OUR OWN

The English language is a rich source of laughter when employed by those who do not speak it entirely well. Here are two instances of considerable distortion of the correct, beautiful thing. I doubt if the persons who uttered the words will ever visit my blog, but i will spare them the embarrassment by avoiding their names.

"Why did you go for Khushboo's throat like this?", I quizzed a politician. Denying the charge, he replied, "Naw, naw, we did not do any protest... the women were naturally aroused when they heard khushboo." (Then they do pretty strange things when naturally aroused.)

A sweet old man, who is a bit of a "source" wanted me to call him before I went over to his house. He likes to speak my language - the language of the young and trendy, so he said, "Please give me a tune before you come." I am going to meet him now after giving him that tune.

"SHOPPERS BATTLE TERRORISM", REPORTERS

It’s a post that has been floating around in my head for the last 10 days – ever since the Delhi blasts happened. Perhaps the events of that day have already faded from public memory but I think I need to get it out of head anyway.

This is primarily a rant against television news. I don’t know how many of you felt the same irritation I experienced while watching television the following morning.

The reportage of the blasts was muddled, jingoistic and trivial all at once. I got more information out of watching 5 minutes of BBC World than I did out of watching 20 minutes of various Indian channels.

The first complaint is that this expression ‘Dilhi dilwaalo ki’ (loosely translated….Delhi – city with a heart) suddenly caught the fancy of reporters and interviewees alike. But it is so hopelessly out-of-sync with Delhi as we know it that it sounded only superficial - hardly creating a lump in the throat that it was perhaps expected to. Also, faced with such a unique situation, most people do respond humanely. And then the very next morning they go back to fighting with their neighbours over water and parking space. So were we really expected to buy this ‘dilwalo ki’ business?

The other triviality that was covered ad nauseam was the fact that shop-keepers around the blast sites had opened up the very next day for business. Reporters seemed to want us to believe that it was their resilience and their will to fight the terrorists that made them do so. But it sounded extremely insincere. Shoppers were interviewed and many of them said, “life goes on.” Of course, “life does go on”, but such banal philosophy on the morning of the blasts sounds insensitive not resilient.

To me, it seemed like these people were back on the streets simply because they knew that lightning does not strike in the same place twice or because of that old “It-will-not-happen-to-me” attitude. But, armed with heavy shopping bags, these shoppers were projected as some kind of exalted heroes at the forefront of the battle against terrorism.

The problem with 24-hour TV news is that it is an insatiable monster. So anything you feed it, it will eat. I can shrink the entire mornings coverage of the blasts in a few lines.

Shops around the blast sites have re-opened for business. Shop-keepers here say they are not going to be intimidated by the designs of a few terrorists. But it also happens to be one day before Diwali – the best time for business. And sure enough, the shoppers are back. Meanwhile, the death toll from last evenings blasts has gone up to xyz. A little-known group called so-and-so has claimed responsibility for the attacks and the Delhi police is investigating the organizations various other links. Raids have been conducted in 20 locations and x number of people have been arrested and interrogated.

8 lines. But on television somewhere between the barrage of useless, irrelevant un-information, we had to glean this hard kernel of real news.

A MEETING WITH GERE

You meet the gorgeous man from ‘Pretty Woman’ and one of the first things he does is show you a tear in his trousers. Just as he was sitting down for the interview Richard Gere said to me, “I’m so jet-lagged and tired… look even my trousers are torn.” I just smiled and said, “Welcome to chennai.” (?? D’Oh!!?)

From then on I was determined to be a better conversationalist. The moments while your cameraman is checking the lights and sound are always extremely awkward. The interviewee is sitting right there in front of you and you’ve got to make easy conversation till you can abruptly start when you hear the word, “rolling”. What easy conversation do you make with Richard Gere? Turned out I didn’t have to worry about that. Gere is a seasoned TV interviewee.

He began to fill the space by beginning with, “Have we met before? You looked so familiar sitting there in the press conference.” (I was meeting him in an ante-room after his presser with Kamal Hassan, Parmeshwar Godrej and Kalanidhi Maran) I told him we hadn’t, although I was flattered for some reason. We started talking about this and that and he enquired about Dr. Prannoy Roy. But even as we talked, I began to get a bit fidgety because I was still not getting the green signal from my cameramen. Richard Gere immediately noticed that and wonderful gentleman that he is, asked me if the other people in the room were making me nervous. I assured him they weren’t and a nice woman from ABC news (cant remember her name now but her handshake is memorable… she was very strong), also chipped in with, “Its her cameramen who are making her nervous.”

Anyway, so the interview finally began. My introduction to camera was smooth and I set him talking about his mission of spreading awareness on HIV and AIDS. He has given these interviews many, many times so his sentences flowed like an extension of repeated thought. For an interviewer, that is always disheartening. Its as if your questions are not inspiring your interviewee to think anew about the same things.

However, I felt his body language change a little bit after the third question. I had kept the best questions for later. His reply was more spontaneous and thinking yet clear and concise. But just as I was settling in, his manager warned me that I could ask only one more question. My exclusive time with him had been eaten up by the technical delay.

So I shot my last question to which I think he gave me his most spontaneous answer. I was very pleased but had to wind up, at the point where I thought it was really getting interesting. Imagine my delight when he said, “I wish we had more time.” I could only say, “Me too.”

Incidentally, white hair and torn trousers have never looked more becoming on a man.

HELLO-SNARL-GOODBYE

You'd expect the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to be an approachable, welcoming body, right? You'd expect it to have people who are benign, learned and kind, right? You'd expect it to be headed by persons who truly believe in an egalitarian society, right? And most of all, you'd expect it to have people willing to listen, right? Wrong.

I called the State Human Rights Commission in Chennai and asked to speak to one of its members - Justice S Thangaraj (former judge of the Madras High Court). When he came on the line, I wished him good afternoon, very politely, and introduced myself. Anyone who doesnt wish you back is strange. And he was. Undeterred I proceeded to ask him the status on a particular complaint and enquired when the investigation would be complete.

But instead of answering my questions, he began to yell at me! He ticked me off for nosing around and said I had no business filing such stories. Also, he made the bizarre allegation that I ought not to be calling him, but coming in person. So, if I was to land up at the SHRC office and find the venerable Justice S Thangaraj out of his seat, thats alright. Afterall, I have no business to try and speak with him on the phone before that!! It took me a moment to understand the ludicrous comment he had just made but when I finally recovered, to defend myself, he hung up on me mid-sentence and didnt pick up that line despite many attempts to call back.

My rationate is very simple - if this is how he treats me, this is probably how he treats people who appear before the Commission with complaints. And people who do are generally very poor, politically voiceless and deeply wronged. Upon such people we have unleashed the likes of Justice S Thangaraj.

STORY?!

Apologies to those who tuned in. The story must have been dropped at the last minute. Such are the vagaries of television news. Sigh... It did go on air today though. (14th), but guess what, i missed it too.

IIPM vs BLOGGERS

Okay.. Yet another update. Though i have the sinking feeling very few people will read this on time. The blogger story will go on air NOW. The latest I know is that its going on air on the 8 and 9 'o' clock bulletins on NDTV 24*7 on 13th October. Thats right - tonight.

But if you miss it - take heart. We are planning to do a longer story on blogging pegged around this issue. Do leave your thoughts here on possible angles to such a story.

The last time we did such a story I think there was some confusion on who the target audience should be. Should it be the vast majority who do not blog and thus run the risk of perhaps not getting them interested in the topic or do we talk to bloggers but run the risk of telling them things they already know. I guess like a good general news feature it should interest anyone - So how do you do that? Will be picking my brain over that.

PRESS, POLICE AND PRIVACY

Recently a Tamil newspaper called ‘Dina Malar’ did something despicable to increase their sales. Their photographer, invited to cover a fashion show at a club called ‘Pasha’, trained his lens instead on couples on the dance floor. Close-ups of couples smooching and drinking were then splattered all over the newspaper - an utter and complete violation of journalistic ethic because it was a brazen invasion of privacy.

But before the outrage could even begin, the police stepped in and did something even more ridiculous. They arrested two staff members at the hotel where the pictures were taken! The charges against them were that they were permitting obscene behaviour and operating the bar without a license.

A favourite with Chennaiites - 'Pasha' will have to be on mute for the next three months according to court orders.

The police wants us to believe that the photographs of the smooches was the tip of the ice-berg. But hey…we all party and go clubbing. I have never seen anything that descends into something so obscene that people need to be arrested for it. 'Pasha' was made to appear like a den of vice, which it is not.

The buzz for a while was that the police was looking for the couples who were photographed kissing on the dance floor. Is anyone looking for that photographer?

ERROR IN CONNECTION

I called Airport Enquiry at 11:45 pm on the night following the strike called by Left unions all over the country. All I needed was to find out when the Thai Airways flight from Colombo would land. A gruff sounding man answered the phone. I was at the wrong place, he said, but instead of giving me the correct number he hung up.

Dialing another number led to an ‘error in connection’ message. The third line was not in existence either. The fourth line I tried, a lady picked up the phone. She told me I was calling the wrong number and kindly gave me the right one. But that line didn’t exist as well! I called back the number with the same lady at the end of the line. She tried connecting me to Thai Airways – no reply. I tried the last enquiry number she gave me. Dead again.

Dipanker Mukherjee of the CPI(M) was in the NDTV studio, brandishing a document on their alternative to privatization of airports. They would do well to begin with a damn enquiry number that works.

Its difficult to be sympathetic towards government employees who promise to run your airports efficiently, when they can barely tell you whether a flight has landed.

THE TRAUMA OF SUICIDE SURVIVAL

The number of young women between the age group of 15 to 25 attempting suicide by consuming acid is on the rise. According to hospital records more than 6000 such patients were admitted to various government hospitals in Chennai city last year. Nearly 5700 survived. But that's the problem. It's where the tragedy actually begins.

Dr. S M Chandramohan, Professor of Gastroenterology at the Government Royapettah Hospital says, "When they consume acid, they think they're going to die. But they dont die. Its a myth."

Emotionally vulnerable women reach for the cheapest, most accessible option available to kill themselves - bathroom cleaners at home that contain acid. While an acid concentrate in a chemistry lab is enough to kill, diluted cleaning acids stop short. They are potent enough to burn up your innards but not enough to kill you. So most people live but end up destroying their lives.

They are unable to eat, talk or even swallow their own saliva! The entire apparatus from the oesophagus to the stomach is rendered useless. Making these patients eat again, is the first priority for doctors. In fact, Dr. Chandramohan has pioneered a new surgical method to enable patients to do so. He says, "The south Indian stomach is an extremely bulky one because we are traditional rice eaters. This has come in handy - we are able to stretch the stomach right upto the mouth and once they are connected patients can eat again."

I found this solution extremely interesting.

Consuming acid has become such a disturbingly common method of suicide that the Health Secretary of Tamil Nadu is now planning to write to the Drug Controller to request that cleaning acids be made available in soap form.

If ever you're in the presence of someone who has just consumed acid, remember NOT to make them throw it up. That will only re-expose their insides to the corrosive liquid. Give them some water (if they can manage to down it) and rush them to a hospital.

THE INSIGHT INTO A STORY

Sometimes an insight into a story comes from unrelated events.

I was in Pudukottai in southern Tamil Nadu, doing a story on a group of Muslim women who have set up an all-womens jamaat. That is a big deal because traditionally the jamaat has been a male bastion. The jamaat is attached to every mosque and plays the role of conscience-keeper and arbitrator, doling out justice for the people who come before it.

But justice is not always done. To begin with, muslim women are not allowed to appear before the all-male jamaat. (Here, im talking only of Pudukottai. Maybe its different in other parts of the world). So if its a divorce, the husband is present to plead his case but the female is represented by a brother or father.

One of the womens jamaat members said, "The woman is involved in the dispute, but when it comes to the final resolution, she is nowhere in the picture!"

The all-womens jamaat was set up to deal with such and various other discriminatory practices. Sharifa Khanam, a bold, brassy woman set it up so that Muslim women would find a voice. She says, "This is not about religion, this is about power. Islam is a fair religion but these men have appropriated power over the years and dont want to give it up now."

I stored away that comment at the back of my mind and went out in search of these "megalomanical" men. I met some professors at the Arabic College in Pudukottai. All of them said that Sharifa and all the others in the jamaat were immoral. One bearded sage said, "They have a baaad character. They dont even wear the purdah...they come out in their nightie!" These men were genuinely of the opinion that a womans rightful place is at home.

Still i thought - old men stuck in their old thinking. So i searched for more men. More views.

I decided to find them outside a mosque after the evening prayer. Gathering a group around me i asked, "What do you think of the womens jamaat?" Most of them were dismissive of them, some even disdainful. The local cleric said, "Women should obey men. Thats the way it is in the shariat."

I began to believe the womens side of the story more - all the talk of oppression. But i was a bit unsatisfied because i felt i was reporting it in a he-said, she-said kind of way. Anyway, i decided to wrap up and shoot my piece-to-cameras or PTCs (where reporter stands before camera and delivers a few lines) and then head back home.

I planned to do a PTC right outside the mosque where I had met all those men. So the following day i was there again. But this time it was different. They were hostile. They didnt want me around. They thought i was being too nosey and that i should take my camera and leave. But they didnt bother being civil about it. Rude, ungentlemanly and arrogant - that's what they became. That's how they told me to bugger off.

I stood my ground and did the PTC right outside the mosque and indeed in quarreling with me, they had done me a favour. I finally got a real insight into how they must talk to their wives and daughters. The way they tried to bully me, I figured that they dont really treat women as equals. And in trying to collar me out, i felt that they were intolerant of too much questioning.

It didnt make a difference to the way i wrote the story. The "facts" of the case remained the same. I had no additional information - just a deeper insight. That's what I was talking about.

WILL ABSTINENCE EVER BE SEXY?

The UNICEF recently organised a workshop to create awareness amongst young people on HIV and AIDS. The participants were students, journalists musicians and radio jockeys - essentially people in a postion to spread the message and hopefully influence change.

At the workshop a DJ from Washington D C, George Collinet, said, "The first message we need to send out is abstinence."

"But is that a realistic message in these times?", I asked him.

He replied, "We need to make abstinence sexy. Thats the challenge."

Cyrus Broacha, supremely funny MTV VJ, was there too. I asked him if he agreed with George's point of view. In characteristic Cyrus style, he said, "Whoever said we need to make abstinence sexy has been drinking. Abstinence is good... all the girls I knew practiced it. But nobody is going to listen if you preach to them!"

If George manages to make abstinence sexy someday he would have pulled off the impossible. And that will be great. But for now I think i agree with Cyrus.

ODE TO GOOGLE

Its a forward going around, but i cant resist mentioning it here. Look no further for testimonials to the greatness of google. Just type the word "failure" and see what you come up with!

CHAPPELL SPEAK

Covered yet another bland cricket story - the Indian cricket teams return from Sri Lanka. An obviously irritable Greg Chappell gave monosyllabic answers even as the press tried hopelessly to eke out a fresh angle to write a story on a team that is nauseatingly over-reported.

Example:

Q: "Mr. Chappell, what is the realistic time table you have set for yourself and this team for a turnaround."
Ans: "Yesterday"

Q: "Mr. Chappell, what are the early lessons learnt from this tour?"
Ans: "Bat better, bowl better, field better."

Some TV channels had this live!!!

HAZARDS OF TV NEWS

One of the hazards of television is that you hear the best quotes when the camera is not rolling. Let me give you one small example. I was waiting for the grand-daddy of blogging, Kiruba, at the reception area in his office. He strode in and we introduced ourselves. The first thing he told me when he heard my name was, "The advantage of having an unusual name is that you can get it as your own domain name." Spoken like a true-blogger, i thought. But where was my camera? On my cameramans lap, with the lens cap on, as he sat there on a sofa, in the lobby of the offices of Sify.

Another hazard is that unless you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you lose your best visuals. A mob stoning police vehicles makes for gripping television. But its a spontaneous act again. So the visuals you'll probably have to settle for are shots of shards of glass lying around on the road, smashed wind-screens and people standing around. Which is why, a film-maker recently remarked, "watching television news is like watching faces in my window." And shes right! Just a lot of mid-shots with people, people, people, people, people. The television is on mute all the time in front of me in the newsroom at work. Very, very, very rarely does what im seeing make me sit up and take notice.

TOTAL INJUSTICE WITHOUT THE JUSTICE

The Madras High Court is one of the oldest in India, but today it has other dubious distinctions to its credit. One of them is that it has the highest number of pending cases. Every year nearly one lakh cases are filed but bizarrely there are not enough judges to settle disputes!

(Ever noticed how the burgeoning population of the country never seems to spill into government vacancies!)

But getting back to the Madras High Court... it has a sanctioned strength of 49 judges but the system groans, stumbles and totters along at half strength with only 24 judges.

Now, you must be wondering - is it that difficult to find somebody to play judge?! No, its not very difficult. Its not very difficult to find someone qualified and erudite to arbitrate. But what is difficult is to find men and women who will not be partisan, who will be fair and who will uphold the loftiest ideals in the Indian constitution.

It would be stating the obvious to say that the independence of the judiciary is a myth. But what is less trite is the disturbing extent to which political parties are now able to extend their sphere of influence. That is why it has taken so long to fill these vacancies. Most lawyers in the Madras High Court will tell you that the public is suffering while the political parties play ping-pong.

This is how it works - any lawyer with a practice of 10 years behind him/her is eligible to become a judge. A collegium of three high court judges draws up a list of nominees. That list is then sent to the Law Ministry. The Intelligence Bureau gets into the act and does a background check on these men and women. If a stench has not started to emanate, the list is forwarded to a collegium of five supreme Court judges. They finalise the list and then it goes back to the law ministry and lastly onto the president after which the judges are finally appointed.
Political parties can throw a spanner into the works at any time during this process. Right now, both the DMK and the AIADMK are unhappy with some of the names on that list. Both sides want names of people on that list, who will toe their line. So they've been stalling it by raising objections.

Meanwhile, the system of justice delivery is slowing down drastically. It is groaning under the heavy burden of cases that are filed everyday. It is proving redundant. Jail sentences finish before bail applications are taken up for hearing. People move out of their homes before a property dispute can be settled with the landlord. More crimes are committed before a conviction can be given for the first one.

K R Tamizhmani, President of the Madras Bar Association, acknowledges that an already weak system has been made weaker. He says of the present crisis, "The system functions on the faith a common man has in it...that faith is now shaken...it may be ruined shortly."

QUIET PLEASE... THANK YOU

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was recently awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Civil Law by the Oxford University. In his acceptance speech, he spoke in glowing terms about the legacies of the Raj and the blossoming Indo-British partnership.

Here is an excerpt.

Of all the legacies of the Raj, none is more important than the English language and the modern school system. That is, if you leave out cricket! Of course, people here may not recognise the language we speak, but let me assure you that it is English. In indigenising English, as so many people have done in so many nations across the world, we have made the language our own. Our choice of prepositions may not always be the Queen's English; we might occasionally split the infinitive; and we may drop an article here and add an extra one there. I am sure everyone will agree however, that English has been enriched by Indian creativity as well and we have given you R K Narayan and Salaman Rushdie. Today, English in India is seen as just another Indian language.

We have given the world R K Narayan and Salman Rushdie, as the Prime Minister rightly pointed out. But what do we do with our Venkiah Naidu and the BJP? We would love to give them to someone... anyone. When it comes to slaying with the jaw bone Venkiah Naidu has no equal. A few reporters caught him at the airport for a sound bite on the issues the BJP plans to raise in the next Parliament session. I was cuing the tape in the office but not really paying attention till he said that one of the issues would be the the PM's speech at Oxford. He said, "What does the Prime Minister mean by praising the British? We want an explanation on this!"

This gripe came out in exactly the sort of english the Prime Minister was referring to - an english entirely our own. In fact, now so much our own, that Venkiah Naidu has forgotten why and how he came to be speaking it in the first place. The BJP flounders again.

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE

On the 6 month anniversary of the tsunami, a friend and me found ourselves in Cuddalore. He bought a packet of sweets and started handing them out to kids we saw along our stroll through one of the temporary shelter colonies. The kids were happy at the sudden appearance of this gift.

But the elders were a slightly different kettle of fish. One old lady scoffed at the little toffee and asked what it was expected to do for her empty stomach. She took it nonetheless. A couple of men sitting around in the sun raised their hands asking for some. Old ladies were directing kids to approach us and demand their share of the goodies.

Something about all this asking, for a small, insignificant toffee was vulgar and despicable. And not one thank you…just a lot of grabbing because it was free.

As we were leaving one woman raised a child up to the car window so that we would bestow our largesse on him as well. But by then we were too disgusted to display any.

I have read reports glorifying the fishing community as one that is resilient and proud. Resilient yes, proud… definitely not. The community in this village struck me as an idle bunch of freeloaders. Its probably what their kids might learn too.

Is dignity and pride a preserve of those who have enough? I really dont know.

GOLDEN GOOSE RESEMBLES WHITE ELEPHANT

When they played the national anthem at the end of the inaugural ceremony of the Sethusamudram project, i felt cynical... unlike most other times, when i have to liquidate that lump in my throat. Union Minister T R Baalu and his friends, have set the wheels in motion for a project that could be environmentally disastrous and economically unviable. Yet, they (the politicians) all stood on that stage, indifferent, ignorant and silent.

The Sethusamudram Ship canal project envisages the dredging of a 167 kilometre long, 12 metre deep, 300 metres wide channel in the sea. This channel will connect the shallow waters between the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Straits. The Gulf of Mannar is a bio-reserve with some very rare species of marine life and corals. With the churning of the ocean bed, biologists fear the marine park will die. But the environment was never on any political partys agenda so its hardly surprising that the MoEF has given the project the green signal.

So forget the environment, lets talk money. Maritime specialists warn that this project could be one big white elephant. Ships are getting bigger and 60 to 70% of the traffic coming to the region is still likely to go around Sri Lanka because the channel is too small to accomodate them.
But, sources say, T R Baalu is not in the mood to listen. Within the system, orders have been sent down the line for everyone to shut up. If you're wondering why, the answer is not far to seek -- Votes. Elections. Politics. Environmental activist, T Mohan says, "Such a huge project means contracts and kickbacks....politicians just get to expand their sphere of influence."

Through a sucessful media campaign political parties over the years have established the Sethusamudram project in peoples minds as something of a goose that lays golden eggs. They have been told it will provide jobs, industrialise southern TN and galvanise the economy. And since the turnaround time on the project is so vast, even if it flops miserably, the people who were in power and had once made tall promises will not be around to provide any answers.

Wonder what the politicians on stage were thinking of when the national anthem played.

IS IT THE BEGINNING OF THE END?

I have been flirting with the Andaman and Nicobar islands for about two years now. I thought the chemistry would never die and that I'd always leave the islands longing for more. But the affair has ended. The romance is over. The islands are drowning in a morass of corruption
and red-tapism of a particularly depressing kind. And this corruption unfortunately spells disaster for the Nicobari tribals - the indigenous, mongoloid natives of the southern group of islands.


The Nicobarese today are a traumatised people. All their plantation land has been destroyed and half their community wiped out by the tsunami. But instead of nurturing whats left , the government is further tearing apart their social fabric. For instance, the Nicobarese have for centuries lived in large, extended joint families called 'tuhet'. But the government, in its mainland wisdom, has built nuclear units for them. A majority of them have not yet been given tools. A Nicobari without tools is like a programmer without a computer. So with so much time on hand and absolutely nothing to do, the Nicobarese, natural lovers of drink, are boozing themselves silly. Their coconut plantations are not going to regenerate for the next 6 years atleast. The government will try to teach them something new, but it might be as futile as teaching an old dog new tricks. The next few years will test the resilience and survival instincts of the Nicobarese. If we let them make their own choices, they might survive, but if the administration continues its intrusion into whats left of their way of life, we'll probably end up destroying a centuries old tribe, forever.